Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taoyuan mayoral candidate Simon Chang (張善政) yesterday denied plagiarizing Council of Agriculture (COA) reports during his time at Acer Inc, weeks after his opponent withdrew from the race over separate plagiarism allegations.
COA Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) said that the council would look into allegations involving research sponsored by the agency.
While working as vice president at Acer, Chang applied to serve as principal investigator in a COA research project from 2007 to 2009, Chinese-language Mirror Media reported.
Photo: Chen En-huei, Taipei Times
The council approved his request and provided funding of NT$57.36 million (US$1.88 million at the current exchange rate), it said.
The reports prepared by Chang’s team fail to cite the sources of some translated texts, and contain content copied directly from media reports, journals and the council’s own publications, although the final report was never made public, Mirror Media said.
When Chang’s former opponent in the Taoyuan mayoral race, former Hsinchu mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅), faced allegations that he plagiarized his two master’s theses, Chang said that “one should drop out of the election when one loses one’s integrity,” it said.
Although the council is not academia, research commissioned by the government should adhere to certain regulations and be checked by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics before the project is closed, Chen said.
The council would explain the case to the public once everything has been clarified, he added.
In response, Chang said he was commissioned by the council’s information management center to provide information on the development of e-agriculture in other countries to research institutions in Taiwan.
Researchers collected information from journals and media reports to introduce new technologies to Taiwan, which is different from writing a thesis, he added.
His team members worked hard to gather the information, he said, adding that while there might not be a list of sources at the end of the report, “for example, one of our presentations listed the main Japanese sources.”
The project also involved holding seminars at agricultural research institutions across Taiwan to promote e-agriculture information, he said.
He is “very proud” of the project’s results, Chang said, adding that it is regrettable that this contribution to the nation’s e-agriculture development is being used to defame him.
Chang said he is also sorry for affecting Acer and Google, where he worked as chief operating officer for Asia-Pacific infrastructure.
“Our opponents should pursue a more positive way to compete instead of attempting to discredit a job that has been beneficial to the nation’s development by comparing it to a thesis plagiarism issue,” he said.
Taipei City Councilor Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) of the KMT told a news conference that if the whistle-blower’s accusations are well-founded, they should report the case, otherwise the incident would “merely be a political act.”
It is impossible to spend NT$57.36 million on a research project only to have a professor gather information, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) said.
Chang “should be well aware of what plagiarism is, as he was an academic and a professor at National Taiwan University,” he said.
He added that Chang “is not qualified as a candidate” and asked him to “think twice before officially entering the election,” or the case might affect elections across the country.
Acer in a statement said that the project summarized agricultural development in Taiwan, applications of technology in various agencies and outcomes of e-agriculture implemented abroad.
Researchers also conducted experiments to test new technologies, such as radio frequency identification and wireless sensor networks, it added.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiao-kuang,
Hsieh Chun-lin and CNA
Taiwan does not exclude the possibility of having formal diplomatic relations with countries that also have formal ties with China, regardless of Beijing’s stance, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Sunday. There was speculation in 2012 that Honduras was attempting to have simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taiwan and China, an idea that then-minister of foreign affairs David Lin (林永樂) rejected. Honduras severed formal ties with Taiwan on Sunday morning after establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing. President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration has taken a more practical approach to relations with like-minded countries since assuming government in 2016. Previous administrations took the
Seven senior faculty members, including the principal, of a high school in Taichung were temporarily suspended from their jobs on Friday, pending an investigation by the Taichung Education Bureau into alleged bullying and abuse that led to the suicide of a student last month. The city’s education officials were too slow to suspend those involved, the student’s father told a news conference on Wednesday, at which Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) and members of the Humanistic Education Foundation were also present. The boy had been a good student and a high achiever during elementary and junior-high, and had
ORIGIN UNKNOWN: The Leofoo Village Theme Park and Taipei Zoo have accounted for their baboons, as authorities continue a 12-day capture attempt Authorities in Taoyuan are searching for a non-native baboon, possibly of the chacma species, that has been spotted several times in the city’s Pingjhen District (平鎮) over the past 12 days, and was most recently seen in coastal Sinwu District (新屋). The baboon was first spotted near a local factory on March 10 in central Taoyuan, Jhensing Borough Warden Huang Chih-chieh (黃志杰) said. Huang said he requested the Leofoo Village Theme Park’s help after a second sighting on Saturday. In other sightings, the baboon raided fruit and vegetable gardens on private property, and has evaded one capture attempt via a tranquilizer dart. Media reported
Taiwan would have established formal relations with Argentina long ago if not for China’s interference, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Yui told US-based Spanish-language online news outlet Infobae in an interview published on Tuesday. Beijing has left behind a string of unfulfilled promises in Latin America, including pledges to build the Grand Nicaragua Canal and airports, docks, ports and industrial zones in El Salvador, he said. Meanwhile, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and other countries enjoy pragmatic and improving relations with Taiwan based on cooperation on the economy, culture, technology and science, he said. While Taiwan is “happy to live and let live,”
RSS